Heritage spoils Jay County's perfect record

Heritage had its chance at a share of the conference title slip away last week.
So the attention turned to playing spoilers.
It worked.
The Jay County High School boys basketball team had its hopes of an outright regular season Allen County Athletic Conference championship slip away Friday in a 36-32 defeat at the hands of the Heritage Patriots.
It was the first conference loss for the host Patriots (14-5, 5-1 ACAC) to a team other than Leo in two seasons as a member of the conference.
“Huge loss,” said JCHS coach Chris Krieg, whose team had to settle for a share of the conference title with Bluffton. “We’ve been trying to explain to our kids for the last two weeks how important this game is.
“Tonight, they out-executed us. They just played a lot harder than us. They played smarter than us for the full 32 minutes. We just went through the motions because it was not a big game for us.”
Heritage (7-10, 4-2 ACAC), also nicknamed the Patriots, were focused on taking away Jay County’s chance at the title after it lost to 58-54 in double overtime to Bluffton Feb. 6.
“We really wanted to take care of business last week in Bluffton so we were playing for a piece of the ACAC,” said first-year Heritage coach Barry Singrey. “When that didn’t happen it just became all about the next game. This is our seniors’ last ACAC game ,and we just wanted to get out with a win.”
Trailing 32-31 with 44.3 seconds to play in the fourth quarter, Heritage senior Evan Renninger drained the second of his two 3-pointers from the right wing on an assist from Jacque Jacquay.
Renninger scored his only points from long range, with Walter Knapke and Billy Lomow sharing the team-high of 10 points.
A turnover by each team followed Renninger’s 3-pointer, and the host Patriots had the ball with 22.1 seconds remaining.
JCHS senior Kyler Carvel, who was out of the starting lineup fighting an illness, drove the lane for the potential go-ahead bucket but Lomow stepped into the paint and drew a charge with 8.7 ticks on the clock.
“Billy Lomow is probably leading the state in charges taken,” said Singrey. “I expected him to step in when that guy was coming. What I didn’t expect was (the officials) to make the right call because he’s taken two or three at the end of close games and hasn’t gotten the call.
“For him to stick to it, that is just a senior that decided to buy in to a first-year coach and that’s why I love these kids.”
Krieg agreed the officials made the right call, but lamented at his team’s performance on defense.
“You have to leave it out there and give it everything you’ve got,” said Krieg, whose team travels to Fort Wayne to take on the Wayne Generals this afternoon. The JV game tips at 2 p.m. “Tonight we did not. I’m disappointed in our effort, our energy.
“I feel sorry for the fans that had to sit and watch this. It was an embarrassment for our program.”
Getting the victory was a slow, patient process for the visiting Patriots, who beat Jay County at its forte, fundamentals.
Heritage led 8-2 after the first quarter, and held a 17-8 advantage at halftime.
When it had the ball, Heritage waited. And waited. And waited some more to find an open shooter. When the visiting Patriots took a shot, they didn’t miss too often. They were 13-of-26 from the field and 6-of-10 from 3-point range.
“I didn’t like the way we used to shoot, the way we used to be ready to shoot,” Singrey said. “The kids have worked real hard to be ready and to know when to look to get that shot and to execute.”
Jay County, meanwhile, was 13-for-30 (43 percent) from the field, including a lackluster 1-of-12 from behind the arc.
“We took too many threes,” Krieg said. “We have to go in (to the lane). “Unfortunately for us, we are not a very physical basketball team.”

Junior varsity
A strong fourth quarter gave Jay County a 46-36 victory over the Patriots to finish perfect in ACAC play.
The host Patriots (11-5, 6-0 ACAC) were tied at nine after seven minutes and took a 19-15 lead into intermission. An 8-7 margin in the third quarter extended the advantage slightly, until they exploded for 19 points in the final period.
Max Moser had a team-high 12 points for Jay County, with twins Michael and Ryan Schlechty each scoring 10 apiece.
Holton Hill and Garrett Rodgers followed with five points each, and Connor Davis chipped in with four points.

Freshman
Stout defense and consistent offense helped Jay County to a 33-14 victory.
An 11-2 advantage after the first quarter turned into a 21-9 lead at halftime for Jay County (12-4, 6-0 ACAC). The host Patriots pushed the score to 26-12 after three quarters and held the visitors to just two points in the final seven minutes.
Parker Grimes and Wyatt Geesaman scored six points each to lead Jay County, which also got five points from Gabe Faulkner and four each from Gavin Randall and Noah Harris.